@MizzouAthletics Completes Over 500 Hours During Community Service Week
4/21/2016 8:50:00 AM | General
Student-athletes, staff complete 524 hours of community service
COLUMBIA, Mo. – Over 200 Mizzou student-athletes recently took part in Community Service Week. Throughout the week, numerous locations were served, including Mid-Missouri Food Bank, MU Women's & Children's Hospital, Columbia Public Schools, Rainbow House, Special Olympics of Missouri, Missouri Public Schools, MU College of Education, United Way and a canned food drive at Memorial Stadium benefitting The Food Bank for Central and Northeast Missouri.
"During this semester's Community Service Week, student-athletes and staff completed 524 hours of community service," Mizzou Total Person Program graduate assistant Taylor Phelps said. "The ability of our student-athletes and staff to complete so many hours and serve numerous organizations over the course of one week speaks to the dedication we have in serving the community. The students have a great time encouraging one another to make a difference in the community that has given so much to them. This is our second semester holding a Community Service Week, and the excitement surrounding the week continues to grow."
Throughout the Caleb's Pitch event at MU Women's & Children's Hospital, student-athletes participated in "syringe art" to give the children a positive experience with a process that is often seen negatively.
Mizzou Moves at the Our Lady of Lourdes Interparish School included an event focused on teaching elementary students the F.A.S.T.E.R. nutrition and exercise model that Mizzou student-athletes use through fun activities. There were various 45-minute sessions throughout the day for each grade level.
Starlight Reading at Townsend Hall on the MU campus allowed the program to reach kids all throughout the state of Missouri as each student-athlete teamed up with a member of the wheelchair basketball team on-campus to read a book to a classroom via Skype.
To fight illiteracy in the Columbia community, free books were provided to second grade students at Grant Elementary. Through the foundation, books teaching great lessons through sports were distributed.
To wrap up Community Service Week on National Student-Athlete Day, each student-athlete paired up with a buddy from Special Olympics of Missouri for a fun day of kickball and lunch at the Mizzou Athletics Training Center.
At the canned food drive prior to the Mizzou Football Spring Game, the student-athlete working group helped promote and collect the donated items.
Mizzou Athletics is dedicated to preparing all student-athletes and staff to become "Champions for Life." Each respective sports program is involved in numerous community service initiatives throughout the year.
